During the last 20 years, it has become increasingly clear that enormous, even decisive, challenges confront the human enterprise. Today we see more clearly than we did in 1996, the year that Henri Nouwen died, that we face a convergence of powerful trends – such as, climate change, species extinction, poverty, and economic inequality – that together present a grave threat to the future of life as it has evolved since Homo sapiens first emerged some 200,000 years ago. As Pope Francis proclaims in his landmark encyclical, Laudato Si’, our current crisis calls us “to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home.”

Three themes in Henri’s writings are especially fruitful for us to explore: accepting our belovedness in ever deepening levels of our lives, realizing the mind of Christ as a continuous illumination of our ordinary awareness, and reclaiming our intimate, co-creative relationship with the natural world. We will explore ways in which Buddhist mindfulness, Christian Centering Prayer and the exploration of non-dual consciousness can help us to more fully embody St. Paul’s exhortation, “Now not I, but Christ livesin me” (Galatians 2:20.) What does this Christ consciousness call us to actually do in practical, effective ways to meet our planetary emergency with hope, creativity, and courage? This retreat day will include presentations, evolutionary conversation, silence and prayer.